Life as We Knew It

"Visitors? What kind of visitors?" Amber gaped at her. "People. Living people, come." Bailey motioned as she quietly stepped downstairs. A tall, muscular man with sandy blonde hair and piercing brown eyes who looked to be in his about mid to late 30's, and a woman with long, light brown hair tucked into a braid. Behind her, there was a boy that looked to be about 11 or 12 years old with blonde hair and grey eyes. "What do you want?" Amber questioned, now protective over Rebecca and her new friends. She gripped her knife, in case they made a move. "We're not any trouble," the woman cautiously said. "I'm Sam, this is my wife, Lily, and our son, Jack," he motioned, putting his hands up. He suddenly glanced at Liam's hand, his eyes wide. "What happened to his thumb?" he said, looking at Liam's hand. "He was bit. I cut his finger off, hopefully it will stop the infection. But if it doesn't..." Amber glanced at Bailey and lowered her head, "Them we will have to do what needs to be done." she whispered. Before they discussed Liam, they needed to find out the intensions of these new people. "What do you want?" Amber repeated, getting back to business. "Just bullets, if you can spare it," he continued, "We're running low." "Bullets." Paisley whispered, "You have guns?" Guns. They needed them, though she only took a couple lessons, she was a natural. "We don't even have guns," Liam said, clearly thinking the same thing Amber was thinking, a white bandage wrapped around the stub of his thumb, "But, you're welcome to join us. We have a car. We can look for 'em." he said. The people thought for a moment. "Ok. But, if you try anything..." Sam said, showing his gun. "I won't hesitate."

They found a Bass Pro Shop, a store stocked with weapons and other survival gear, and they quickly parked the car when they spotted it. A medium-sized, silver RV was parked nearby. The others were eyeing it too. "I can hijack cars." Liam suddenly spat out. "What?" Bailey said, "And how can you do that?" she said as a smirk spread across her face. "It's none of your concern..." Liam said, running his hand through his hair nervously. The group members couldn't help but stifle a laugh. No one could imagine him as a criminal, after all, his job before the outbreak was in fact, a police officer. "Well, how about you stay and get that RV working, along with my wife, son, and Rebecca," he handed Liam a gun, his last gun. "If there's any trouble," Sam said as he handed Liam a Walkie-talkie, "There's a low battery, so use it only if you have to." "Amber and Bailey, you'll come with me and we'll scavenge whatever we can find, but be on alert." he said warily. They nodded and followed Sam into the towering store, gripping their weapons tightly.

The three entered the store quietly, weapons raised. Sam threw open the door, and they quickly jumped through. The store wasn't that well-stocked, but they managed to find a couple of pistols, a silvery black compound bow, bullets, hunting knives, a portable tent, and some camouflaged clothes. Amber slipped on the brown combat boots with black laces and grabbed a pair of white cowgirl boots for Rebecca, grinning at the thought of her wearing them. Bailey wore identical boots, except brown, a cowgirl hat, and a button-up red plaid shirt with dark blue jeans. You could obviously tell she was from the south. Amber gripped the pistol given to her and refreshed her memory on how to load them. After ten minutes of mistakes, she finally successfully load the guns. She smiled as she turned around, her nose wrinkling at a horrifyingly familiar scent. She turned around and her jaw fell open. "Damnit!" she yelled. At least four dozen walkers were nearing her. She grabbed her gear and sprinted down the stairs. "We gotta go," she screamed as she shot a couple in the head, and they fell to the ground. She felt a tug at her shoulder and screamed out, falling to the ground as a roamer tackled her. In all the panic, she had dropped her gun! "No!" Amber cried, desperately pushing the walker off her. Just as the walker was closing in on her face, a knife entered its skull and it went limp. Amber looked up to find Sam with a bloody knife, offering her a hand. She placed her shaky hand in his, tears settling in her eyes at the close encounter, and whispered a silent "thank you", and then they ran towards the exit. In a moment, Bailey saw the commotion and quickly busted the door open and closed it before the roamers, as Rebecca called them, wouldn't be able to get through. The roamers pounded on the glass door, growling and snarling, causing several cracks. "We need to go! Now!" Sam yelled, "There's too many for us to handle!" Liam hopped into his red jeep, along with Bailey, while Amber, Rebecca, and Sam and his family hopped into their new RV. Just as the roamers broke the glass, they drove away into the day.